STF Grand Canyon Adventure 10/8 - 10/13

So here’s the story of our adventure to the Grand Canyon, it’s written by one of the other people in our group that always does the write ups for us.







How to begin this narrative? This is so far the most amazing trip of my life. Nine vehicles: six Baja Bugs, one Toyota truck and two Jeeps, ready to tackle 1000 miles of desert and forest in a quest to reach an extremely remote section of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from near the Salt Lake Valley, avoiding as much pavement as possible and backtracking to loop back to the origin point. Quite the challenge.

ShopTalkForums OffRoadForum has held a multiday offroad/camping/driving/sightseeing adventure for two years now, and this was to be the third. The first left out of western Idaho and explored eastern Oregon, consisting of approximately 250 miles, running several spurs from a central camp location. The second, planned by Tim, took place entirely in Idaho and was more of a point to point, 4 day, 600 mile loop.

Living in the legacy of those, Richard had long wanted to visit the Grand Canyon, and planned a mostly off-road route from the Salt Lake Valley of Utah to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and back. Many were invited, but only a few brave souls would attend, as it was well understood that this would take 5 days and around 900 miles (from the starting point at Five Mile Pass, Utah).

This trip would not be for the faint of heart.

Participants:
• Richard Boyce – Visionary, logistics, planning and route designer
• Tim Seward – mapping stud, main videographer
• Scott Henderson (Herbie) – voice of Southern reason
• Carl Nielson – Bronco guy who drives a Jeep
• Dustin – Jeep guy
• Chuck(les) – chef and resident comedian
• Ed (Original Ed, Elko Ed) – uh….not sure, but he’s handy
• Ed #2 (Slow Ed, Rattlesnake Ed) – Mr. Prep
• Derek (Ed’s son) – Mr. Bling
• Cameron Blackley (Baja IT) – voice of reason
• Shortie (Patrick Blackley) – voice of unreason
• Brandon Lawson (Tako) – extremely smart guy
• Kyle (me) – co-driver, chronicler

Vehicles
• 560 – Mike Sill built ACVW powered Baja Bug, Richard Boyce modified
• Tako’s ride – Turbocharged Ford Focus powered Baja Bug
• Tim’s Green Bug – Subie powered Baja Bug
• BAJA-IT – Cameron’s Ride, a basic, reliable Baja Bug that’s been floating around for a few decades, recently rebuilt
• Little Jeep – Carl’s 3” lifted, basically stock Jeep Cherokee
• Bubba – Dustin’s insane CJ-7 rockcrawler
• That’ll Never Work – Elko Ed’s unconventional Baja Bug
• The Mule – Rattlesnake’s 1641 ACVW with the enormous roof rack, packed with tools and spare parts!
• OffRD2 – Shortie’s Tacoma, in the works, cargo handler

This was the plan so far, and things were looking good. Our plan was to gather and leave by 8 AM on Friday, October 9th, 2015, stragglers would not be accommodated for. As the Blackleys and I arrived late Thursday night, things were looking good. Well, for the most part.

Richard and I still had to get the GPS programmed by Tim and the cigarette lighter adapter wired for the GoPro, cell phone chargers and whatever else. The first thing we discovered is that we had wired the GPS to accessory power and not battery, that was remedied easily enough by flashlight. The cigarette lighter could wait until morning. Tim, however, could not, and he ran from vehicle to vehicle programming GPS’s and giving drivers and codrivers alike lessons on how to best use them.

I also discovered that I had remembered my tent, but somehow left the poles at home. Luckily, Shortie had brought a hammock, so I borrowed that for the evening. In an effort to save space, thinking I would actually fit all of my gear on 560, I had brought a mummy bag instead of my usual loadout. Mummy bag in hammock = hell. The insanely bright light that turned on at 5:30 am from the industrial operation across the canyon didn’t help, but it was too cold to get up and walk around, so I remained in the mummy bag, watching stars, satellites, and meteors until the sun just started to rise.

 

DAY 2

If you were late, you were left behind. We weren’t leaving trail markers behind, nor were we sharing GPS files outside of the group that was there, ready to go at that time. I finished up wiring the cigarette lighter adapter, we all packed our gear into our meager space and we were ready to go. Richard gathered everyone around for a “driver’s meeting” of sorts to establish some ground rules.

1. Richard and I would lead in 560, and radio back any necessary information such as major turns, road hazards (washouts, sharp turns, wildlife, oncoming vehicles, major road crossings).
2. Every vehicle would wait at major turns for the vehicle behind to catch up as not everyone had GPS.
3. The tailgunner (last vehicle in the caravan) would have to have a 50W radio so the entire group could keep in contact.
4. Occasionally we would all stop and regroup to make sure everyone is still in good shape and adjust pace and plans as necessary.
5. No unnecessary nerfing!

And so, we took off from Five Mile. Richard and I noticed that our VHF kept resetting and also that the wiring I had hastily unziptied was hanging down around our feet, which was likely causing the radio to lose and quickly regain power. I had forgotten to resecure it when installing the cigarette lighter. We figured the first five miles was a good point for everyone to do a walk around of their vehicles anyway, so we stopped, stepped out and proceeded to address the wiring issue.

As I was working on that, Richard was snapping photos. It was then that he noticed the roof rack was somewhat off kilter. Richard had built a rack based on a Yakima (or similar) rain gutter system, with a big rack mounted to it, full of heavy camping equipment, water, and guzzoline. That seemed to be to much for it, and it was hanging on by a thread when we stopped. It had also knocked a large dent in the roof. Someone asked, “Didn’t you notice all that noise with it slamming around like that?” Well, no, we had our headsets on, which cancel out quite a bit of the noise and were chatting away trying to get into our driver/co-driver groove.

Long story short, the team came to the rescue and we ratchet strapped that rack down to the roof of the car, tightened up the mounts, and reduced the weight on it. We took off and hit the gas. Things were going great, we made a few stops along the way, at a Pony Express station, a highway crossing, but mostly just booked it across the desert at speeds of 50-60 mph. It was a blast.

After a ways, we came to some fun rollers, with washes between. No problem, we thought, we’re in a race car! We continued to hammer down but then hit a seriously nasty wash which the car handled just fine, but the roof rack did not. Luckily we had the ratchet straps in place or that thing would have likely flown forward and taken out the fiberglass hood and light bar. When we got out, we also noticed quite the ding on the right front rim.

It was decided at this point that we would take all of the weight out of the rack and strap it down again as best we could. As much as we love our Bajas, we were glad to have the trucks on the trip. We loaded Carl and Shortie down with as much gear as we could!





The rest of the day was looking good, lots of real fast stuff, a nice trip through the cedars and a beautiful, wide wash, and a quick stop in Lund to fix an oil filter seal on BAJA-IT. We made it through Beryl, but then Richard and I noticed a sharp climb in oil temperature and a noticeably noisier engine on 560. I asked Richard, “Do you want to pull over and check it?” He said “Yes.” We halted the group behind us and everyone gathered around the car, checking temps with Elko Ed’s IR gun, thinking through possible issues and solutions, and in the end discovered that the engine was basically empty of oil. We found a small leak on the case seam, but nothing that lead to an empty case. After all was said and done, we decided to leave it in Enterprise, Utah at the house of a friend of Dan Durade’s, a member of Strictly Bajas. The offroad community is awesome like that. I climbed in with Carl and Little Jeep, while Richard took the passenger seat in Elko Ed’s That’ll Never Work.

We then proceeded to Camp 1, just off Enterprise Reservoir. Apparently, Ed and Richard had bonded, as Richard offered to camp with Ed, leaving me his nice SpringBar tent for the remainder of the trip. It had been a long day, around 260 miles, and we headed to bed pretty early. Next stop, St. George, for our final fuel stop before the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

 

DAY 3

Today was it, even though we felt like we were just beginning the trip, this was the day we would make it to the Grand Canyon. Excitement was in the air. We would drive into St. George, supply up, and then hit the North Rim early enough for us all to enjoy it.

The drive out of Enterprise Reservoir was spectacular. Curvy roads with steep drop-offs kept our speeds to a minimum and sightseeing to a maximum. Tim and Herbie had taken the lead spot. After a bit, we hit pavement and rode into St. George, probably the longest stretch of asphalt for the entire trip. Cameron hit the local O’Reilly for a spare oil filter, Derek requested a McDonald’s stop from Ed #2, and the rest of us hit the gas station for a regroup. After a bit, we all showed up, refueled and headed out. Bubba was getting 6 mpg, no joke. He was having fun doing it, though!

On the way out of St. George, we got several “thumbs up” from the locals, even Carl and I in the Little Jeep. We drove River Road until we hit the Arizona border and dirt. We were all booking it across the desert, we could see Tim 3 miles ahead of us across several valleys. We passed a few other motorists at high speed, radioing back hazards as usual. Every once in a while, Little Jeep would experience a Death Wobble, the result of a combination of a 3” lift, old worn out stock parts, and new, beefed up parts on the front suspension. It was a little unnerving at first, but Carl kept reassuring me that “She’ll make it,” and he always managed to bring Little Jeep back in line, so I learned to live with it.




We stopped at the Bundy Schoolhouse for lunch and talked strategy. The next stretch we figured would be very slow going, rarely traveled roads, so we decided to keep on trucking. The next 25 miles turned out to be extremely quick. We passed several sites that we wanted to see, but our main goal was to have as much time as possible at the North Rim, so we kept on moving. At mile 25, we turned off the main road, but were still making good time.

About halfway through the 25 mapped mile spur to camp, we started to realize that the actual mileage was closer to 35 due to the twisty turny nature of the trail. Speeds slowed down to about 5-10 mph, and the drivers wore blisters into the palms of their hands from the non-stop turns. Carl and I approached 25 mph at only two points in the 15 mile stretch of the final leg to camp, but we were hooting and hollering the whole way.

We finally caught a view of the South Rim very close to the end of our journey. By that point, we knew that That’ll Never Work had reached our campsite, along with a few others. We stopped to enjoy the view and snap a few pictures. Breathtaking.

Five minutes later, we were at camp at SB Point, the most amazing campsite I’ve ever occupied. We were fifty feet from the first rim of the Grand Canyon, 100 feet from the sheer drop off from the absolute North Rim.
















We took some time to listen to Chuck to say “Holy Sh*t” about eleventy million times. No one else could thing of a better way to describe the view of the Grand Canyon.

We then sat around the fire for a while, talked shop, cooked dinner, drank some beer and whiskey. And then there was a snake:
• Group “Hey Ed (Elko), there’s a rattlesnake coming towards us under your car.”
• Ed #2: “I’ll get it.”
• Someone: “Here’s an axe.”
• Ed #2 carries it off down the hill, “I’ll let it go here.”’
• Group “No, kill it!”
• Ed #2 “You want me to kill it?”
• Kyle “Yeah, that’s why we gave you an axe!”
• Ed #2 “OK, just didn’t know if that was cool with everyone.”
So, Ed #2 killed and skinned it, and we sacrificed the head on the fire. Good times.

 

DAY 4
Today we would head north towards camp 3. It was slated to be a pretty easy day, with an optional route west of Hurricane if time permitted. The 25 mile route back out was just as rough as the route in, we weren’t imagining things. Once we got out to the graded roads, things started to pick up, though.

Cameron and Rattlesnake Ed (the nickname makes sense now, right?) had a few minor issues regarding clogged fuel and air filters, and we all got a little spread out. Carl and I were near the middle of the pack, trying to keep pace with Elko Ed, and trying not to lose those in the rear. We waited at one particular turn for a few minutes, but as soon as we saw that group we headed on. Not another few miles into the day’s trek, we noticed That’ll Never Work pulled off the side of the road.

We pulled up and wondered why they were pulled over on such a smooth part of the track until we got out and walked around. There was an obvious problem of some sort as there was brake fluid all around the right front and the front wheels were a bit cockeyed. Ed told how something felt funny through the last few turns, but they figured it was just loose gravel. Then it suddenly went all sorts of South. By the time we pulled up, they realized they had lost a stock spindle. Mind you, this is one of the unmodified, non-fabricated, non-reinforced VW parts on That’ll Never Work. I think Elko Ed would like for me to make that clear.

A few minutes later, the whole gang had reconvened around the broken VW. This was an interesting dilemma, nothing we could properly fix on the trail, but with the amount of VW knowledge in the crowd, we knew the SITUATION as least was not insurmountable. No, there would be no giving up here, camping for the night and waiting for rescue. The big brains were getting together and coming up with ways to get this car into town and the broken spindle to a welder.

Long story short, we removed the front passenger wheel assembly, strapped up the trailing arms, mounted the donut spare on the driver’s rear, and had three of the biggest guys (yes, that included me) stand on the rear cage while Ed shortened up his limiting straps on the driver’s rear suspension. Richard would also ride with Shortie for the duration to take additional load off the right front. That gave us about four inches of clearance on the front beam, allowing the car to be driven on three wheels. We’d all read about doing this on a VW, but I’m not sure any of us had ever participated in such an adventure.







We changed up the marching orders a little, and decided to carry on to Hurricane, where we figured we might find a welder, even though it was Sunday in Utah, to help us out. After a couple miles, we decided the best plan of action was to split into two groups. One would run into Hurricane with the broken parts in hopes of repair, while the rest would stay with Elko Ed. Each group had at least one high powered VHF radio to keep in contact.

Tim led the rescue group, with Tako, Dustin, and Little Jeep. He had no intentions of wasting time on this mission, and we hauled. Carl and I were experiencing more and more Death Wobbles, but Carl wasn’t worried, so why should I be? We just had to slow down every mile or so to regain control. No big deal.





We got to an overlook of Hurricane pretty quickly, and I had 4G reception, so the Jeeps looked for the only auto parts store open on a Sunday, while the VW’s would try other options. We found an O’Reilly’s pretty quick and headed straight for it as we were after replacement air filters and possibly suspension parts for Little Jeep. It was decided the entire entourage would meet at O’Reilly’s as we might need bearing grease, tools, nuts, bolts, etc. to pull off this repair.

Coincidentally enough, with the VW’s behind the Jeeps, Herbie managed to spot an old torn down VW “and a racecar” in some dudes front yard as they barely pulled into town. This guy didn’t feel comfortable welding a spindle back together, but as they were talking, the owner of a local steel fab shop pulled up. They’re neighbors. So, once again helped by strange fate, S&S Steel Fabricators of Hurricane, Utah (pronounced Her-uh-kin), saved our bacon.

Before they were halfway through repairing and reinforcing the spindle, we heard from Rattlesnake Ed that they were just pulling into town. He had apparently pulled in front of a runaway Elko Ed, who had no brakes, and cracked his oil sump, but wasn’t leaking enough to stop. In the meantime, Cameron attached a tow strap from his front beam to Elko Ed’s back bumper to keep him from running into street traffic. As Carl and I listened over the radio, we could only imagine what people were thinking as they watched what looked like a three wheeled Baja Bug pulling a four wheeled Baja into town.

We all eventually met up at O’Reilly’s. Carl and I checked Little Jeep’s front suspension and could find no obvious wear, so we decided to keep on moving. Ed and Ed both repaired their rides. As it was near sunset, we all needed to figure out how to proceed. There was a 40 mile optional loop that we could take out of town, but we still had 15 or so miles to take once we got back to town to get to the night’s planned camp. We could also camp at Sand Hollow, but that involved fees and improved campsites, neither of which we were too keen on. In the end, Tim and Tako decided on the extra loop, while the rest of us would move forward to set up camp.

The drive up Smith Mesa was beautiful, but it was definitely getting dark quick. After about 15 miles, we realized the drive to camp was actually closer to 35. We couldn’t find either of the two potential campsites that we had marked, so Carl and I started driving back down the track, with our awesomely bright 1989 Jeep headlights looking for anything promising off the road. Pretty soon, we found what seemed like a beautiful, tree heavy, wide open spot, big enough for our large group. We made camp.





Over the next few hours, we hung glow sticks off the side of the road, and radioed Tim and Tako into the site while we all sat around the fire, told stories, and drank a few. What a day. Most of us went to bed eventually, and a few claimed to hear a faint bearing squeal from Tim’s Green Bug, but not all of us. But hey, what happens after midnight must wait until DAY 5.

 

DAY 5
Tim and Elko stayed up until 4 AM talking shop. At least that’s what I heard. I slept late despite our need to align Elko’s ride and other stuff. We made breakfast. Dustin and Chuckles went rock crawling around camp. It was a good, casual morning and looking to be a nice, casual morning start to our drive to Kolob Reservoir.





I think we made it maybe five miles until we were hit with unexpected road construction. Apparently, despite Richard’s thorough research, we weren’t aware of a paving operation in Zion’s National Park, which we had recently entered through the backcountry. We had an hour and half to wait, but we had cell service, so we took the opportunity to make calls home, check emails, eat a nice, leisurely lunch, swap more stories, and plan future expeditions. This was certainly not time wasted, and quite honestly it was a nice break from an otherwise frantic pace.

Once the road was open, we were stuck in what I can only describe as conventional road traffic. It was kind of funny, imagining all these vacationing families and construction workers worked in amongst a long trail of old Volkswagens, modified Jeeps, and a deceptively mild Toyota Truck all traveling in some sort of strange mongrel pack. This lasted for just over 15 miles, but was thoroughly enjoyable as a slight change of pace.








We then reached the beautiful Kolob Reservoir. Chuckles had been begging for a bath since DAY 1 (I’m being kind in not sharing all the details of his failed shower at Camp 1, trust me), so we agreed to give him 10 minutes here to dive in and shake off. To be honest, Chuck had provided pretty much every meal several of us had eaten on this trip, so concession to this small request was not a difficult decision. We spent a few minutes here taking some group photos, and there are rumors of photos being taken of Chuck’s bath, but I take no responsibility for those.

Anyway, we then moved on, the three quickest Baja’s and Dustin taking the lead, Carl and I leading the slower group. About two miles past the reservoir, we said hello to our familiar Death Wobble. About 50 yards later, we said goodbye to it. Something had gone horribly wrong, we heard a loud bang, Little Jeep pulled severely to the right, Carl and I hugged to the left as he wrestled to pull the steering that direction and we approached a hefty wooden post and barb wire fence from the right. We eventually stopped, we breathed. Nothing had come through the open passenger side window to whip me in the face.





We couldn’t reach the leaders via radio as we were in heavily mountainous, wooded terrain, but the group behind up stopped. Luckily for us VW guys, Carl knew what he was doing with a Jeep. One side of the track bar had broken from the Death Wobbles. He jammed it up into place and pulled it tight with the winch, and we felt confident we could make it into Cedar City at a slower pace.





Once again, the group hit the trail slightly wounded but still together and confident. We rolled at a pretty good pace, equivalent to the 45 mph Elko Ed managed on three wheels. As we hit the Cedar City overlook, we were able to reestablish contact with the lead group, again formulating plans for food, gas, and vehicle repairs. The shop of choice today would be AutoZone, as they had the track bar we needed, and Tim’s bearing issue had gotten louder.





We spent several hours at AutoZone, Tim got his bearings repacked (but he had reservations on as to whether that was the real problem), and Carl, Dustin and Shortie spent a few hours getting a stock, cheap track bar to fit Carl’s modified mounts. In the end, all seemed, good, though it was once again getting late. We would resupply and then haul again until we hit camp 4.

Regrouped and hitting the road, things were looking good. Despite an occasional Death Wobble, Carl and I were feeling good. We hit Lund and checked out the Union Pacific locomotives that were parked there for a few minutes. Time to head northeast. The roads were expected to be fast railroad grades. They started out that way.





By the time dusk started in, we hit a few good puddles and washouts from the recent storms. Radios are great for radioing back that information when you’re well spaced out. When we got close to Milford, we were too closely spaced, and just about every vehicle hit a squarely cut wash that was about 2 feet deep. We all got through it but then realized there was much more of the same. Tim was then in the lead, and shortly thereafter, Herbie was recorded as saying:

“Damn, something just happen? Tire fall off? F**king spindle broke.” Tim’s concerns about whether the bearings were the issue had been real. After a quick inspection, the stock spindle had broken off at the base. This was not something field repairable as had been Elko Ed’s.








We pretty much knew at that point that the day’s trip was done. However, we were not done as a group. Carl, who knows nothing about VW’s, was all over his friends asking for spare spindles, the Blackleys had Curtis scrounging through their yard for spare parts. We knew we were camping here by the railroad tracks for the night.









Eventually, Curtis found some spare spindles in Grandpa Blackley’s stash, and Carl, Tako and I went to gather some Creosote soaked, expunged railroad ties for a campfire. Cameron and Shortie would meet Curtis in Beaver to retrieve the spare spindle while the rest of us put coins on the nearby railroad tracks to watch them get flattened.





And yet again, we reached midnight with parts still on their way. DAY 6, the final day, to come soon!

 

DAY 6
Honestly, many of us were up until 2 AM trying to fix Tim’s Green Bug. We had a supremely beefed up L/P spindle, but realized after trying to make it fit that the bearing wouldn’t work. We eventually made the call to wait until morning as we couldn’t figure anything out this evening. Elko Ed, Tako, and Tim would make some calls in the morning to figure out if they could find some readily available adapter bearings in the morning.





After a few quick phone calls post-sunrise, Elko and Tim took off to NAPA in Milford, our third auto parts store rescue for the week. They had the bearings. The rest of us stayed behind, ate Chuck’s breakfast again, and started to tear down camp. We had a long day ahead of us, with little spare time, so we were eager to get going.

Tim and Elko got back quickly, and everything went back together according to plan. In the end, the rescue spindle worked. We were on the road again. We headed quickly to Milford to grab guzzoline, lunch, and whatever else. It was at this point that Brandon (Tako) decided he needed to part ways back west, and so an extended goodbye was in order. Tim’s front end looked to be in seriously disalignment, but he was comfortable running it that way for a bit. It was readjusted once along the way.





We got headed back on the graded roads with the serious goal of getting back to Five Mile by that evening in order to get back to work on Tuesday morning. It was a stop and go day, but mostly good. With the track bar replaced, we pushed Little Jeep up to 75 mph when we were in the lead. The group stayed together with only minor issues, and we reached Five Mile by about 5 or 6 PM on our last planned day. It was fast. Only one vehicle had bowed out since the beginning of the trip and that was precautionary, I in fact heard 560 run quite nicely last night. All the participants had found a seat to fill.

In the end, we came back to Five Mile with a 900 mile round trip total, about 800 miles off-road. I can’t possibly compare this to any other trip I’ve ever been on, and I’m not sure I ever will be on another but I’ll keep trying. It was spectacular, sights unseen. Thank you so much for Richard for the vision, and for the friends that accompanied me on this journey. Looking forward to the next STF adventure!!!!

 

Cool story. That looked like a fun trip. Funny how the Toyota never needed anything! I cut my teeth on dune buggies and Baja bugs. Good to see folks still out there flogging them. Thanks for sharing.

 

I actually have one that I'm building right now as just a play car, So I ran support for my fathers baja and any of my friends that needed me.

 

It looks like that was a blast, it is nice to see the Taco not having any issues! Thanks for sharing.

 

Nice write up and sounds like a great adventure.

 

What permit did you get and how lol Im struggling right now

@SixthSnail

 

We didn't go anywhere that we would need a permit. Stayed on preexisting roads and public lands.